Road Trip Help Requested

[djetok]

I love a ski road trip! So jealous! Some input from CO:

I'd think about two days at Monarch and a day at CB. There are lots of reasonable CB accommodations in Gunnison 30 mins away. I'll dig up the decent place I stayed at recently for $60/night with breakfast if you want.

Salida is the fantastic little town where you'd stay for Monarch. If you'd be happy for 3 days at Purg, I'd think you'd enjoy Monarch and the typically better surface conditions.

I did the Gunnison to SLC drive in a day then went out that evening. It was easy on a clear day but would have been too much if stormy/icy. If that's the case, I'd suggest driving part of the way Tues afternoon.

I believe your pass also has 3 free days at Copper and Loveland which are sporting some of the better conditions in CO. They both have some decent terrain open and are about open more.

Copper and Loveland are 1.5-2 hours from Salida and don't add much to the drive to SLC. You could head west Tues afternoon after skiing Copper or Loveland and stay in Eagle, Glenwood, Rifle or GJ/Fruita then finish the drive to SLC Wed morning. You might also consider moving from Salida to Leadville Mon night, then you'd be 30 mins from Copper Tues morning.

Here's the most reliable CO snow report that also shows you how much terrain is open by difficulty:
https://www.coloradoski.com/snow-report

In general, I'd delay the decision and go to the best snow wherever that is, CO, UT or WY! The nice thing about the areas you are considering is they all have readily available reasonable last-minute accommodations.

I would do Monarch. You can stay in town in Salida in a decent hotel/motel. Our last trip we stayed at the monarch lodge. It was ok, but without a kitchen we drove to salida to eat every night. We had breakfast on the mountain. Lunch in the bar (tamales are awesome). For 99 per night we couldn't complain a lot. We just got back from Purg (last weekend) and Monarch over new years. Conditions are better at monarch, they did a great job of marking a lot of the brown and ice patches. Purg was icy all over, except the short night skiing run.

 

[djetok]

So,

The wife and I have a road trip planned starting next Saturday, January 20th. We are leaving from Flagstaff AZ on the Saturday morning, and can go any where we wish, as long as we are in Sandy Utah on the evening of Wednesday the 24th for a ski gathering with friends. That means we have five days to drive and ski. We do have Snowbowl season passes, which means we have the Powder Alliance benefits, plus some reciprocity with other resorts. Our original plan had been to drive to Durango and ski Purgatory for three days before heading up to Salt Lake, but as the infamous "cancel my plans" thread points out, there is no snow. We can book hotels through Booking.com with free cancellation, and we don't mind driving. However, we are now a week away and need to make some choices. The best skiing we can find is at the top of our list, but not exclusive. The lodging roughly costs the same wherever we go, but ticket prices range from free, to discounted, to full window price. Driving is tertiary, but does carry some weight. We are also basing our choices on current skiing conditions, as snow is, well, not exactly reliable this year.

So, here are the options we have so far.

• We can make the 8 hour drive to Monarch, ski for free for three days then make the seven hour drive to SLC for the gathering.
• We can also ski Crested Butte for free for three days, but can't find reasonable accommodation in the area
• We can make the eight hour drive to Ogden and ski PowMow for free for three days, then drive down to SLC on the Wednesday.
• We can make the seven hour drive to Sandy and ski the Cottonwood resorts at window price for a few extra days before the gathering begins
• We can make the twelve hour drive to Jackson and ski the Hole with a 40% discount for three days, then make the four hour drive back to SLC on the Wednesday
• Anything else anyone can come up with

If it were you, were would you go?

Monarch

They have opened more terrain since we were there 2 weeks ago.

 

[tball]

I've heard of lift lines at Monarch during spring break. How about January? Can the folks from the Springs and Pueblo overwhelm Monarch?

I'd be a little worried about the lift capacity at Monarch on a well-predicted powder Sunday. I know it doesn't work with your lodging plans, but I'd consider maybe skiing CB on Sunday rather than Monarch.

While there is similar acreage open at CB and Monarch, there is dramatically more lift capacity at CB. Monarch has 6 low capacity lifts open while CB has 13 open with a couple of high-speed lifts:

Source: https://www.onthesnow.com/colorado/skireport.html?&ud=0&o=skiable_open

But, the snow will likely be better at Monarch, both new and certainly the base, and it will take longer to get skied off. Tough choices these powder days.

 

[djetok]

I've heard of lift lines at Monarch during spring break. How about January? Can the folks from the Springs and Pueblo overwhelm Monarch?

I'd be a little worried about the lift capacity at Monarch on a well-predicted powder Sunday. I know it doesn't work with your lodging plans, but I'd consider maybe skiing CB on Sunday rather than Monarch.

While there is similar acreage open at CB and Monarch, there is dramatically more lift capacity at CB. Monarch has 6 low capacity lifts open while CB has 13 open with a couple of high-speed lifts:

View attachment 37614
Source: https://www.onthesnow.com/colorado/skireport.html?&ud=0&o=skiable_open

The snow will likely be better at Monarch, both new and certainly the base, and it will take longer to get skied off. Tough choices these powder days.

Over new years it was busier than I have seen it in my 10 trips there. We were maybe at worst 3 deep in the lift line at the base. The parking lot was at capacity and then some. We never have felt crowded on the slopes. We have never been during spring break, so I don't know. We typically go to Monarch during non holiday weeks. Twice I have put my kids in group lessons and they ended up with a private lesson. We are doing spring break at crested this year. We have a ski in ski out on the south side by the lift, further away from the main base. I am hoping that will be an advantage to lift lines.

 

[Fishbowl]

We leave tonight for Flagstaff, and will make the drive up to Salida on Saturday. The bad news is that ADOT has issued a severe winter storm warning for Northern AZ with blizzard like conditions and high winds. The good news, if we can get there we will be skiing in powder

With over a foot predicted in Utah, we do have a little buyers remorse. We could still switch plans, but knowing our luck the Canyon roads would close, so we are sticking with Co for now with the hope that Utah will refresh by the time we get there in Thursday. Choices, choices.

 

[djetok]

We leave tonight for Flagstaff, and will make the drive up to Salida on Saturday. The bad news is that ADOT has issued a severe winter storm warning for Northern AZ with blizzard like conditions and high winds. The good news, if we can get there we will be skiing in powder

With over a foot predicted in Utah, we do have a little buyers remorse. We could still switch plans, but knowing our luck the Canyon roads would close, so we are sticking with Co for now with the hope that Utah will refresh by the time we get there in Thursday. Choices, choices.

Big dump of fluff today enjoy

 

[oswaldr2]

@Fishbowl - how did monarch go? Was the drive okay? Salida cool?

 

[Fishbowl]

@Fishbowl - how did monarch go? Was the drive okay? Salida cool?

Fantastic thank you. I’ll go with luck over planning, but we decided to drive overnight to beat the storm out of Flagstaff, then woke up to an unexpected 17 inches of powder at Monarch!

I can’t link it from my phone, but I’ve chronicled our adventures I a “Road Trip Report” thread.

 

[oswaldr2]

Fantastic thank you. I’ll go with luck over planning, but we decided to drive overnight to beat the storm out of Flagstaff, then woke up to an unexpected 17 inches of powder at Monarch!

I can’t link it from my phone, but I’ve chronicled our adventures I a “Road Trip Report” thread.

Cool, glad to hear it went well. I'm going to head over there and check out the report now!

 

[Slim]

on the Brighton resort lodging page:

http://www.brightonresort.com/stay/lodging/

I found out that it's actually one queen room, for two nights, gets you 2 x daypass, so if you are with two people, you get one day free skiingfor the two of you. Still a nice deal, and perhaps combined with an afternoon arrival, buy a discounted night skiing (4-9 pm) ticket on lifttopia.